Electric machines are well known in the art. They are used to transform mechanical energy to electrical energy or vice versa by means of two coaxial generally cylindrical bodies: a first one being fixed: the stator, the other one being coaxially rotatable relative to the other, the rotor.
Some electric machines are self-supportive in that they include bearings or other frictionless elements to rotatably mount the rotor to the stator, while others, which are referred to as bearingless electric machines, do not include any means to support the rotor with respect to the stator. They are often used when the rotor is mounted to a drive shaft that is axially and radially fixed. For example, when an electric generator is directly mounted to an ICE (Internal Combustion Engine), i.e. when the stator is secured to the casing of the ICE and when the rotor is secured to the driving shaft of the ICE.
However, the transport of bearingless electric machines is problematic since there is no bearing to maintain the spatial relationship between the rotor and the stator of the machine. For the same reason, the installation and removal of the bearingless machine to/from an ICE for example is also problematic. These problems are compounded when the electric machine is of the permanent magnet type.